One of the most difficult things for humans to do is accept, or at least consider, information which contradicts personal experience. It is ironic that most people understand that their personal experience is unlikely to be representative, yet when confronted with contradicting information the first response is usually skepticism. Further, if the personal experience has been internalized into one's belief system, it is very unlikely that the belief system will change without a lot of effort.He went on to say that to be effective critics of viewpoints different from our own, we must be able to see the other viewpoint even if we can't agree with it. As he notes, this becomes even more difficult to do this if we have internalized an opposing viewpoint and incorporated it into our belief system. Some people claim that most scientific progress does not occur when scientists change their opinions but when scientists holding a particular paradigm die and those replacing them bring along a different paradigm. Even Einstein didn't fully accept quantum physics and kept trying to find ways to "fix" it.
So it's a real trick to keep an open mind for new ideas while defending and building on the ideas that you've found to be true and useful.
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